Japan’s Yahoo-Backed Crypto Exchange Taotao To Be Launched In May

Taotao, a Japanese crypto exchange backed by Yahoo! is set to be launched in May. The announcement was made today by the company, which will start trading with a limited number of cryptos.

The company is 40% owned by Yahoo! Japan and it will start its business in May by trading Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) primarily. However, the company is also ready to offer margin positions in three other altcoins: Ripple’s XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC). At the time of this report, the users could already sign up to be ready for the launch.

Clients are already being accepted today and they will continue to be until April 17. The people who join the company now will be able to participate in a promotional campaign which will see 500 random users getting $1,000 JPY if they trade over $250,000 JPY when the company starts its work.

Yahoo! Japan And The Crypto World

Yahoo!’s plans were first announced when the company used its subsidiary YJFX to buy a major stake in Taotao and be acquire 40% of the company by paying the total of $19 million USD (the numbers are unconfirmed, though, as they were revealed by sources at the time of the acquisition but Yahoo! Japan has neither confirmed nor denied them).

This was the first time that Yahoo! moved into the crypto world, which is an important move, as the company is very large and influential. The acquisition caused somewhat of a stir in the local market at the time, as many investors started speculating about the future then.

Taotao already has the regulatory approval for its business, which is notoriously hard to get. In case you do not remember, Japan saw several hacking cases last year and this has prompted the local government and regulators to upgrade their regulatory needs.

The licensing scheme was started originally in April 2017, but after the hacks, which happened in the following year, the regulators decided that they needed to have more control over the few companies who were able to launch their products in the country as a way to protect the local investors.

Japan is currently one of the biggest markets for cryptocurrencies in the whole world. Despite the setbacks last year with the hack of exchanges like Coincheck, Japan is still one of the most desired places to open up a crypto business (together with the United States and some countries in Europe).

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Brazilian journalist who is interested in the future of the financial world. Has a special interest in the blockchain technology and the global financial markets. Covers economic and technology news with a focus on the fintech industry and has been writing about the cryptocurrency market since the start of 2017.